Man From The Shadows

Man From The Shadows

Olive cracked open the door of the run down shack that her and her younger sister, Beth, were hiding in. The air was cold and crisp with an eerie fog hanging thick and low over the weed covered cobblestone road that ran passed the rickety old dwelling. There was no sign of the Dark Elves that had been pursuing them. There was something more electric about the energy of the night and she narrowed her eyes to try to see beyond the shadows.

“Olive, it’s time…” Her sister Beth panted as labor pains shot through her causing her muscles to tense. “Oh gods….” Her sister gritted her teeth. Olive only took a moment longer before she shut the door and secured it. The soft glow of the firelight danced along the walls of the small one room shack and they crackled in protest to being burned. She rushed over to the hanging large black pot over the flames. Pulling the rotating bar out of the fireplace she used an old clay bowl to dip out its steaming contents and collected a clean cloth that she washed earlier in the day.

“I can’t believe you went and got yourself knocked up by a Moon Elf. With our lives you should have known that this baby would be a kill-on-sight target for both Humans and Dark Elves.” Olive quietly scolded for the umpteenth time.

“Ma and Pa raised us not to be prejudice Olive, you disappoint me.” Beth clenched her teeth trying to be humorous as the contractions grew closer together.

“It’s not prejudice, Beth, it’s weighing out the danger and facing reality.” Olive quietly argued as she pulled out a stick of tightly rolled leather and shoved it into Beth’s mouth to bite on. She might not have seen signs of the Dark Elves, but she was fairly sure they were still pursuing them. The fog would somewhat mask the abandoned village they were in, but once they got close enough there was no telling what they would do.

“We were in love and they killed him for it.” Beth mumbled against the leather as warm tears ran down her cheeks. Olive felt her pain and gently wiped the tears away.

“When we get home, Ma and Pa will protect us, but right now we need to focus on getting this baby birthed alive.” Olive softly assured although her fear of being caught before they made it home was far too strong to ignore. She must have hid it well enough because Beth nodded before she started pushing.

“There is a lot of blood coming out Beth…” Olive nervously stated when a gush of blood came out of her sister.

“Don’t worry about the blood, it’s normal.” Beth assured as she caught her breath. It wasn’t normal, but Olive was already a bundle of nerves and it wouldn’t help if she started freaking out. “Just make sure the baby is okay.”

“Right.” Olive exhaled nodding her head trying to push her worries aside. Beth was the medical practitioner in their family and she really couldn’t justify doubting her words. Olive may be the oldest, but her talents laid else where. She knew nothing about medicine.

Trying to stay calm, she lifted the warm wet rag up to wipe her sister’s sweat away.

“I got to push and you got to look to see if you see the head of the baby.” Beth instructed spitting the leather out of her mouth. She was just going to have to try her best not to scream with the pain. The leather strap was making it hard for her to instruct her timid sister in the situation.

“Okay.” Olive nodded and shifted to where she could clearly see the baby when it started coming. With a deep calming breath, Beth pushed and the baby crowned. “I see a head.” She gasped almost forgetting her fears. Her sister pushed again and the baby slid into Olive’s awaiting hands, but to her surprise there was a hand holding onto the heal of the first baby and a second infant soon followed. She verily managed to catch both, so that they wouldn’t be hurt by any means. “Their boys…” Olive laughed ignoring the fluids that caked her hands and the children she had just helped bring into the world.

“Clean out their mouths, so that they can cry.” Beth breathed weakly laying back too exhausted to hold her head up anymore. Olive done as she was told. Soon both babies were wailing at the unforgiving temperature change.

“Beth…” Olive softly called once she had the children cleaned up and wrapped in cloth. Her sister didn’t respond. “Beth…” She called a little more loudly and gently placed the infants on a pile of straw, so that she could try to help their mother. Beth still didn’t respond, the birthing process had gone bad, there was no other explanation. “Oh Beth…” Her voice cracked as she checked for signs of a pulse, (nothing!) Moments ticked by as she rocked back and forth on her knees trying to figure out how she was going to take care of two newborns and how she was going to get them home to Ma and Pa alive. Beth was gone and she was on her own.

Raleek stumbled against a tree holding a deep gash that ran the length of his ribs. He had been on the run from the 'Shadow Assassins' for months now and he wasn’t sure if he could keep going with his wounds. He would have to find a way to stop the bleeding if he hoped to survive. He didn’t really care much about killing his one time brothers, but at this point, he had no choice.

“Brother, we don’t want to kill you. Please, turn yourself over to us. You can take your punishments for disobeying orders. Eventually, you will be let back into the fold.” One of the three men chasing him called out.

“Sorry, not happening, brother.” Raleek whispered. He knew they were trying to locate him. Ignoring the stinging pain of his wounds, he pushed off the tree and silently stumbled deeper into the fog. He softly grunted when his shin hit the edge of a low porch and he was forced to catch himself before he made too much noise. The fog was thick enough to hide the old abandoned buildings of a long forgotten village. Nailing his shin on the board was an eye opener and it forced him to focus his sight more. Narrowing his eyes as he froze in place, he scanned the area and could faintly make out the outlines of a couple buildings with walls and roofs that had collapsed in on themselves from years of wood rot. Other than that, he couldn’t make out anything else. No people, no animals, or other obstacles. This really wasn’t a good place to get caught unprepared. He slowly began to move along the building placing his hand on the wall for guidance.

Coming to a doorway, he silently sat down and leaned against it to catch his breath. He was losing a lot of blood and he needed to rest for a short while. Not to mention, he knew that he would have to do something that might at least slow down the bleeding. Breathing through his nose to make as little noise as possible, he carefully peeled off his shirt and started wrapping it tightly over his wounds hoping the pressure of the binding would slow the bleeding somewhat, so he could continue on his way. Closing his eyes, he rested his head back against the wall. How had he gotten himself into this predicament? He was the most skilled of all his brothers, yet his morals were too high to complete a mission. He had been sent to kill a Moon Elf who had supposedly committed a great evil with aid of a human sorceress. He had made the Moon Elf’s death as swift and as painless as possible, but when he had gone for the woman he was forced to realize that the only evil the man had done was fall in love with a human girl and was starting a family with her. Needless to say, he couldn’t kill someone who was innocent, so he had let the girl live. The evidence of his orders betrayal was overwhelming. It wasn’t the Elf or the woman that they were trying to eliminate. It was the unborn child that grew in the young woman’s womb. Their own prejudice had them putting a hit on an unborn child for simply being Half-Elf and that was something he couldn’t follow through on. People should be able to love who they want despite race and they shouldn’t be put to death because of it.

What he didn’t anticipate was that they would find out that he had spared the woman and child so soon. Due to his personal skills being unmatched by his brothers of the order, they had sent a group of five to finish what he could not and kill him if they could manage it in the process. So not only was the woman and her child being hunted, he was too. Not that he would do anything differently. In fact, the only thing that stood between them and her, was him. Now another female was in the mix, the woman’s sister had showed up to aid her and was unaware of the fact that she would be targeted now too. His brothers wouldn’t hesitate to kill her, her sister, and the baby that would be born at any time. He had been doing his best to follow them from the shadows making sure that they made it to wherever they were going alive. They had no idea that he was there or that he had already killed two of his order, who had gotten too close to completing the assassination. Having to fight them left him in his current position and he wasn’t sure he would be able to eliminate the other three before they got to them. At least, not in his current condition. He was going to have to be strategic and cunning in order to stop them. He definitely couldn’t take all three of them at once. He was going to have to separate them and somehow kill them one by one. His thoughts were interrupted by the soft cries of pain and he snapped his head up in alarm. He had been sure that he led his brothers away from the girls, how had they ended up in the same place as him once again?

“This isn’t good.” He breathed and pushed himself up. The cries were coming from the building behind him and he had to make sure that they weren’t heard. He leaned on the door handle and noticed that it was locked. Knowing that a locked door wasn’t going to keep the assassins out, he leaned on his shoulder as he reached into the belt pouch and pulled out some lock picking tools he always had on him. With a somewhat weak, yet skilled move, it didn’t take him long to get the door open. He silently slipped inside and locked it once again. He couldn’t believe that he hadn’t noticed the soft fire glow when he was outside, but it became clear as to why when he noticed that all the windows were covered with boards. From the looks of the work, it was hurried and recent which told him the girls had been the ones to take that precaution. He was slightly impressed that they would know to do such things, but it bought him some time. He ignored the birthing process that was taking place and went straight to the fire. Quietly placing some wood into the flames, he got it going strong once again then pulled his knife out of his belt and placed its blade into the fire. He watched the blade heat up to a red. The others in the room still hadn’t noticed his presence when he removed the shirt that he had tied around his wounds and set it aside. He reached for the dagger and pulled it out by the handle, taking a deep breath, he laid it flat against his wounds burning them shut. He didn’t know how he managed to remain silent through it or how he kept from passing out, but obviously he had since they still were unaware of him being there.

“Beth…” He heard the sister call out the name and it pulled him back into the present. He shifted his gaze to her noticing the pool of blood around the mother of the infants and without a doubt knew she had hemorrhaged then passed. It was a common risk of childbirth, but it didn’t make it any less difficult. He used the still semi clean portions of his shirt to wipe the sweat of pain off of him and stood up to approach the grieving girl with the whimpering babes.

“You can’t stay here.” He told her, his voice hoarse from everything he was enduring at the moment. He hadn’t meant to startle her and realized that perhaps he should have been more cautious in his approach when she took a well trained swing at him forcing him to lean back to avoid it. “Whoa, I’m not here to harm you.” He quickly tried to smooth out the situation. It took her a little while to finally believe him and stop trying to attack him. She could fight, he wouldn’t deny that, but her skills were not on the same level as his own, so her movements seemed sluggish and clumsy.

“Why can’t I?” She finally asked lowering her arms in defeat and he exhaled in relief. She was a wild unpredictable one to say the least.

“There is a bigger threat to the children's lives in the woods and once this fog lifts, it will be nothing for that threat to find you. You need to get them and make a run for it to wherever you were going. I will do my best to hold them up, but I can’t guarantee how long that will be.” He softly explained and headed towards the door. It was now or never, he would have face his brothers to keep them alive whether he was ready or not. The moment he reached for the door she grabbed a hold of his arm and the fear in her eyes caused him to give pause. He didn’t like seeing the fear there and the eagerness to remove it from her eyes was an unexpected occurrence. He had seen that fear in many eyes, yet the fear in hers was his undoing.

“You can’t leave, I need you to help me save the children.” She softly pleaded motioning toward the somewhat fussy infants. At least they weren’t crying anymore and that was a plus. He looked at the two infants and they seemed to look straight back at him clear down to his soul. What was it about this fog that seemed to give power to the most simple of things?

“If I don’t leave, we will all die.” He finally spoke turning his gaze back to hers.

“We can all run together. Our destination is only a few days away and if we leave now, surely we can outrun the threat.” She rapidly stated with a hint of hope. He couldn’t be sure if it was her fear speaking or if she actually believed what she was saying. She had no idea what she was asking or who they were up against. Still, he couldn’t come out and deny her hope over the situation. He would just have to make it work somehow.

“It’s cold, use her cloak to wrap them.” He softly relented and quickly pulled away from her to head towards the fire. They couldn’t give the dead female a proper burial, but he could give her a burial none the less. The girl didn’t waste time in tearing the cloak in two, so she could securely wrap each child up individually. He closed his eyes taking a deep breath to send up a prayer for the dead woman and ask for aid to the powers that be. They were not going to get through this on their own and divine protection was needed.

“Okay.” The girl said just loud enough for him to hear. He looked over his shoulder at her expectant gaze and reached into the fire to pull out a burning piece of wood. Standing up, he headed back towards her, she picked up one of the infants and pushed it into his free arm as she turned to get the other. He instinctively cradled it against him afraid that he wasn’t holding it right as he looked at her in surprise. She didn’t notice his expression though as she cradled the other one against her and pulled her cloak around it for added warmth. “I wrapped that one in a thicker portion of his mother’s cloak to aid in keeping him warm while you hold him.” She shrugged thinking that his uncomfortable expression was due to the fact that he didn’t have a cloak to wrap around the baby in his arm.

“Right…” He swallowed and tossed the burning wood in the pile of old straw. “Lets go then. Stay close.” He tried to sound confident and calm as he laid his hand on her back to guide her out the door once he made sure that precious time hadn’t already been lost. “Which way?” He whispered and she took a hold of his wrist to lead him towards the other end of the abandoned village.

Raleek’s worry started to increase as the fog disappeared. They hadn’t stopped since the night they slipped out of the abandoned village and they had been traveling for at least seventy-two hours. Eating on the run and finding nutrients for the infants on the fly. He couldn’t believe that he went from an assassin of the highest skill to a thief of goat’s milk in two short days. He looked at his female companion who was finishing with cleaning the babies up. He scoffed at how often people, so small needed to be cleaned up. “How much further?” He asked her. He was healing up pretty good considering and fortunately he hadn’t contracted an infection, but his wounds were still far from healed at this time.

“We should be there by this evening.” She tiredly answered. They had been moving steadily and without sleep, stopping only when they had to. she looked dead on her feet and her tone was exhausted. He on the other hand was conditioned for this sort of thing, so he wasn’t as affected by the continuous movement. Although, he was far more tired than he would normally be. That was most likely due to his wounds though.

“We should get moving then.” He stated picking up both children, so she didn’t have the added weight of carrying them. By the evening, they were heading into a clearing where a cabin was. He figured out pretty quick that this was their destination, but they couldn’t get into it fast enough. Twenty feet out, his brothers had caught up to them and he was forced to hand the children over to the woman, so she could make a dash for it. He took up his stance as the force they would have to defeat to get to those infants. He blanked out his mind and allowed his body to move on its own as they rushed in to attack.

“Pa!” Ma called out ushering her daughter and grandchildren into the house. Her eyes shooting back to the young man that fought like a devil against three other men of the same level of skills. He looked like he had checked out and his body was doing all the work.

“I got you Ma.” Pa casually said pulling his crossbow out of the container on the porch knocking a bolt into place.

“What is that there young feller doing?” Ma pointed out.

“Seems like he’s kicking them other fellers asses.” Pa shrugged raising the crossbow up to take aim.

“Well, what kind of fool would fight in that condition?” Ma asked noticing the wounds busting open and beginning to bleed along with fresh ones.

“Well, that fool, Ma.” Pa answered taking the shot at one of the other three men. Unfortunately, the man he was aiming at caught the bolt in mid air and tossed it aside as if it was nothing to be concerned about.

“How could you miss that shot, Pa? You getting to old or something?” Ma scolded her husband.

“No, I ain’t getting too old, that feller caught it.” Pa defended lowering the crossbow.

“Quit wasting time and release the hounds on those demons.” Ma raised her voice.

“What if they attack that young feller?” Pa asked scratching his head, only to have Ma give a dismissive wave. Grumbling he hit a hidden button and the piercing howls of hell hounds echoed through the air causing the group that was fighting to pause and look around confused.

“Hey you, Young Feller! Come on in and I’ll make you a spot of tea while we clean up those wounds!” Ma called out the invitation and the young man she was talking to looked at her as if coming out of a trance. Knowing that he couldn’t win this battle, Raleek stumbled towards the woman as quickly as he could thankful for the help. She guided him inside as three headed dogs made of fire appeared out of nowhere attacking his opponents before they even knew what was hitting them. He rapidly blinked his eyes grateful that he wasn’t the one they were eating. “Pa…” The woman called out as she walked through the door behind him.

“Yeah, Ma?” The man answered bored.

“Make sure you put the hounds to bed after they are done eating.” Ma stated shutting the door and leaving Pa on the porch to patiently wait for the beast to stop feasting.

“Yup, I’ll do that.” Pa sighed.

“Olive, get me some fresh bandages and some warm water!” Ma called into the kitchen where the girl seemed to be making bottles for the babies. “Least we can do is tend to your man’s wounds.” Raleek was lost for words as a blush stained his cheeks. He wasn’t sure how to respond to being called the girl’s ‘man’ by the girl’s mother.

“Mom!” Olive gasped entering the room with a bowl of steaming water and some fresh cloths. Her face shining a deep pink as her gaze captured the intense gaze of the ‘Man From The Shadows’. Could he be her destiny or was he just a shadow that would be passing through her life? She knew nothing about him, not even his name, yet he had risked his life to save them all.

“Well don’t waste time girl come on. He has already bled enough for you, don’t you think?” Ma urged her forward. Coming out of her thoughts, she quickly took the stuff to her mother.

“Of course.” Olive stated handing the stuff over. Raleek held her gaze as her mother worked until he fell unconscious from the pain.